1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a mixing bowl cover attachment for a conventional electric mixer and, more particularly, to a removable, reinforced, resilient cover designed specifically to be employed with the twin beater shafts of a conventional, portable, hand-held electric mixer in such a fashion as to substantially eliminate the splattering of the bowl contents during the mixing operation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art, the use of a portable hand-held electric mixer to agitate, mix or stir materials in a mixing bowl without some type of cover was replete with problems. When an electric mixer is used at higher speeds, the ingredients in the bowl tend to be thrown outward and splattered outside the mixing bowl by the rotating beaters. This splattering wastes expensive ingredients, necessitates a rather messy cleanup job, often soils the cook's clothing, and can ruin a recipe requiring a precise measurement of ingredients. The prior art mixing operations also compromise kitchen safety since fingers, particularly those of curious little children, can be caught in the rotating beaters and various types of foreign substances can inadvertently get mixed into the bowl with the other ingredients.
The prior art attempted to solve the splattering problem with various forms of splatter guards or bowl covers. Among the patents which propose splatter guard solutions are the following:
______________________________________ Patentee Patent Number Issue Date ______________________________________ Marie J. Ost 2,486,320 October 25, 1949 Frank B. Post 2,504,727 April 18, 1950 Frieda S. Franke 2,517,648 August 8, 1950 Estelle M. Perkins 2,858,118 October 28, 1958 Ethel M. Hawke 3,913,896 October 21, 1975 Adele Lorraine Bewley 3,960,370 June 1, 1976 ______________________________________
While the prior art cited above does teach various types of splatter shields in an attempt to solve the problems mentioned above, most proposed solutions serve to create additional problems instead. The proposed splatter guards of the prior art are often complex constructions which are difficult to use, disassemble, and clean. Furthermore, many of the prior art patents are useable only with one specific size of mixing bowl rather than a variety of mixing bowl sizes as desired by housewifes and the like. Some splatter guards are made from fabric-like material and these are extremely difficult to keep clean. Further, the prior art which teaches the use of a plastic material, generally teaches the use of a rigid plastic which is subject to chipping if contacted by the beaters to drop chips of plastic into the mixing ingredients with possible disasterous effects upon the humans consuming the food therein, breakage since rigid plastic sheets break quite easily, deformation and loss of shape since dishwashing, washing in hot water or repeated use can alter the shape of plastic materials.
Even if the prior art taught the use of resilient plastic material for ease of cleaning, inability to break or chip, and the like, serious problems would arise from cleaning and particularly from cleaning in a dishwasher since the typically high dishwasher temperatures will cause shape loss or, deformation, or warpage, as known in the art. Yet further, many of the patents of the prior art extremely limit the range of motion of the beaters within the mixing bowl, make no provision for cleaning the beater while in position over the bowl, and make no provision for using the splatter bowl cover as a stand during periods of nonuse. In summary, the above-mentioned devices are generally complex, expensive, difficult to clean and maintain, difficult to attach, difficult to detach, and difficult to maintain without chipping, breaking, loss of shape, or warpage.
None of the devices of the prior art solve the various problems enumerated above while the mixing bowl splatter guard of the present invention serves substantially all of these problems and provides a relatively low cost, extremely simple splatter guard which is easy to clean, simple in construction, easy to attach and detach from the mixer system, adapted to cover various sized mixing bowls, provides protection against chipping and breaking while simultaneously providing protection against warping to ensure shape retention, can be washed in typical dishwashers, and can be used for cleaning the beaters while in the bowl or as a stand during periods of nonuse.